>In an interview, I would much rather hear a person say something about a statically declared variable with no initialization being poor code to leave behind for the next person than some arcana about the standard.
Why are you forcing those two choices? One could be well-versed with the arcana AS WELL AS point out that bit about statically declared variable ..
The problem IMO is most programmers cargo-cult/copy-paste/stackoverflow their way into programming jobs. No, that does not mean you never ask for help. No, that does not mean you never copy-paste. (Phew!)
Its sort of like when you're learning math. Great mathematicians can understand the theory and just apply it to whatever problem they come across. Its because they have a very solid foundation underneath them. They wield their knowledge like tools and can just build anything with those tools because they understand those tools very well. Most students however just learn the patterns of the problems. And once they know enough patterns they can solve problems which fit into one of those pre-understood patterns.
The people who are deeply knowledgeable about the language are good at knowing the boundaries of the language, knowing when you're using constructs that are not valid-syntax (which still compile), etc. The social aspect of 'good comments' , 'readable code' or 'maintainable code' is also important. You can have programmers that do both. Ofcource those programmers will never work for 'you' (not you, personally..) because most programming jobs are shitty and do not require programmers of that skill. You'll find them toiling away in anonymity, working in research labs, working on compiler optimizers or operating systems or some other domain with challenging technical problems.